My invention generally relates to rotatable mailboxes and, more particularly, to a rotatable mailbox-supporting assembly which is inexpensive and which can be easily attached to an existing mailbox ground post and to an existing rural mailbox of the type which is approved by the U.S. Postal Service.
Statistics show that thousands of injuries occur annually to persons while retrieving their mail from rural mailboxes located along the side of a road. Present designs of fixed, non-rotatable mailbox assemblies, while facilitating the delivery of mail, disregard the physical danger to a person who must step into the road and into traffic in order to open the mailbox and retrieve the mail from the inside of the mailbox. Thus, there is a need for a means for mounting such a mailbox so that the mail can be retrieved therefrom without a person's having to step in front of the mailbox and into the road, while at the same time allowing for the use of a regulation-type mailbox which is in current use and which is approved by the U.S. Postal Service.
Even though I am unaware of any commercially available rotatable assemblies for mounting rural mailboxes, rotatable mailboxes, per se, have been described in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,584,085--England discloses a mailbox support consisting of a horizontally-extending arm having a mailbox mounted on the bottom surface of the outer end of the arm; the horizontal arm is telescopically mounted within a horizontal pipe section which is connected via an elbow to an outer sleeve telescoped on a post inserted in the ground; fixed to the post is a roller which travels in a curved slot formed in the outer sleeve, thereby permitting the horizontal arm to be elevated and to be rotated through an angle of only 90.degree.. U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,702--Conroy shows a rotatable mailbox mounted on the top surface of a horizontally extending arm which is fixed to an inner tubular member telescopically inserted in an outer tubular ground post; a pin fixed to the inner tubular member rides on an inclined cam surface of the ground post so that the horizontal arm can be elevated and rotated through an angle of 180.degree.; alteratively, the ground post can be telescopically inserted into the tubular member, in which case the pin would project inwardly and ride on an interior camming surface of the post. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,079,510--King et al, 1,753,506--Florine, 1,893,392--Black and 3,802,656--Virblas also show a mailbox mounted on the outer end of a horizontally extending arm whose inner end is mounted on a vertical post having telescopic tubular members which are rotatable through an angle of 180.degree. or more via the action of camming surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,918--Page discloses a rotatable mailbox pedestal on which a mailbox is directly mountable through an angle of 180.degree., but which has a complex bearing system and a complex key-operated locking mechanism.